KQED's Forum

Did you know that bees have thoughts, memories and personalities? They can count to four, play soccer and feel pain, according to Stephen Buchmann, a pollination ecologist who has studied bees for more than four decades, ever since he was a high school student in Placentia, California. We talk to Buchmann about the internal lives of bees and why the stress they feel may be one reason they’re dying off at alarming rates. Buchman’s new book is “What a Bee Knows.”

Guests:

Stephen Buchmann, pollination ecologist specializing in bees and an adjunct professor in the departments of Entomology and Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona - He is also the author of “What a Bee Knows: Exploring the Thoughts, Memories and Personalities of Bees”

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Salmon need cold water to hatch and grow strong enough to embark on migrations that stretch hundreds of miles from their places of birth. In California, dams constructed along various rivers have disrupted traditional salmon runs and are one reason the species has been in decline for decades. And, as climate change makes everything hotter, including the rivers, salmon spawning sites are at risk. This year, the situation became especially dire with numbers reaching near-record lows. In response, the Pacific Fishery Management Council made the drastic decision to cancel the salmon fishing season for 2023. But salmon advocates say that stopping the fishing season won’t fix state water management policies that have favored agriculture over fish habitats. For our next installment of Climate Fix, our monthly series examining global warming and solutions, we’ll talk about how climate change, severe weather and human behavior are exacerbating the challenges California salmon face.

Guests:

John McManus, Golden State Salmon Association

Danielle Venton, science reporter, KQED News

Jonathan Rosenfield Ph.D., senior scientist, San Francisco Baykeeper

Kasil Willie, staff attorney, Save California Salmon

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When Katie Porter ran for Congress in 2018 she was “acutely aware” of her shortcomings – that she was a Democrat in Republican Orange County, that she’d never parachuted into combat and even that she hated apple pie. But above all, as she explains in her new memoir, she was far from rich, which came to set her apart from her colleagues in the House where “the privilege of wealth divides ruthlessly.” That perspective, along with her experience as a consumer protection attorney and a single mom of three, has informed how she legislates and the priorities she’s set as she campaigns for a Senate seat. We talk to Rep. Porter about her political and personal lives and her memoir “I Swear: Politics Is Messier Than My Minivan.”

Guests:

Katie Porter, U.S. representative, 45th district in Orange County; author, "I Swear: Politics is Messier Than My Minivan"

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California’s energy future is going to require electricity – a lot more of it. With the push to electrify transportation like cars and trucks and a climate characterized by hotter summers and colder winters, experts say California needs to triple the capacity of the grid by 2050. For the next 10 years alone, California will require 40 billion watts of energy, and to power this new future, the state needs to upgrade old transmission lines and construct new ones. But this is no easy task: Building new lines can take years, even decades – time that the state does not have if it wants to meet its clean energy goals. We’ll talk about what California is doing to build out the infrastructure to keep the lights on and get more electric cars on the road.

Guests:

Michael Wara, policy director for the Sustainability Accelerator at the Doerr School of Sustainability, director of the Climate and Energy Policy Program and senior research scholar at the Woods Institute for the Environment, Stanford University

Nadia Lopez, environmental reporter, Cal Matters

Neil Millar, vice president of Infrastructure and Operations Planning, Cal ISO

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This weekend, the NBA Playoffs begin — and this year, for the first time, all four of California’s teams will be playing. The frenzy starts in Northern California on Saturday night, when the Sacramento Kings and the Golden State Warriors start their series. And come Sunday, eyes are on Los Angeles as the Lakers face the Memphis Grizzlies and the Clippers go up against the Phoenix Suns. We’ll talk to sports writers about this history-making postseason, how it came to be and what they’re watching for as the teams battle it out in the coming weeks. We’ll also hear from you: Who’s your team? And what are your predictions heading into the playoffs?

Guests:

Janie McCauley, sportswriter covering the Golden State Warriors, Associated Press

Jeff Zillgitt, NBA reporter, USA TODAY Sports

Jordan White, freelance sports writer covering the Sacramento Kings

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Until recently, a persistent narrative about women in hip-hop was that only one can succeed at any given time. But, that wasn’t how the Bay Area rolled, especially in the 1990s as the region’s hip-hop scene flourished. In the early decades of Bay Area rap, artists including Conscious Daughters, Suga T and Mystic established themselves as legends. They also built what they call a sisterhood: They recorded songs together. They showed up for each other’s shows. And they helped their fellow female artists succeed in a cutthroat industry. We’ll talk with women who pioneered Bay Area rap and how they continue to influence the genre today.

Guests:

Nastia Voynovskaya, associate editor, KQED Arts

Carla “CMG” Green, one half of The Conscious Daughters, an American female hip hop duo from the Bay Area

"SUGA-T" Tenina Stevens, rapper and singer from Vallejo, California. She is a founding member of The Click, a rap group that also includes her brothers E-40 and D-Shot and her cousin B-Legit. She is also an actress, speaker, business owner and nonprofit executive.

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Jury selection begins on Thursday in Dominion Voting Systems v. Fox News, more than two years after Dominion filed its $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit arguing that Fox knowingly broadcast false information about its voting machines and software. In a pretrial ruling, the Delaware Superior Court judge overseeing the case determined that it was “crystal clear” that Fox’s statements about Dominion were false. Nevertheless, misinformation about the voting machines has already taken hold in California: Shasta County has canceled its contract with Dominion and plans to hand-count future elections. We look at the law and politics of the Dominion case and its impact in the state.

Guests:

Jeremy W. Peters, reporter covering the media and its intersection with politics, culture and law, The New York Times; author, "Insurgency: How Republicans Lost Their Party and Got Everything They Ever Wanted"

Roman Battaglia, reporter, Jefferson Public Radio

Jessica Levinson, professor of law, Loyola Law School; host, the podcast “Passing Judgment”

Tommy Gong, deputy county clerk-recorder, Contra Costa County

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Jeanne Manford was an elementary school teacher and hardly an activist. But she had a gay son, Morty, who she loved fiercely. In 1972, the two of them walked together in a New York City gay pride parade, and Manford held a sign that read “Parents of Gays: Unite In Support for Our Children.” It was a revolutionary act. At that time same-sex attraction was classified as a mental illness, and “homosexual acts” were illegal in 49 states. But Manford insisted on publicly loving and accepting her son, and with her husband Jules and son, she founded an organization inviting other parents to do the same. That organization, Parents, Family, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays or PFLAG celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. We look at the impact these families’ activism has had and we hear from you. What does it mean to support those you love? What does it take?

Guests:

Kathryn Schulz, staff writer, New Yorker. Schulz's most recent piece for the New Yorker, "How One Mother’s Love for Her Gay Son Started a Revolution," chronicles the founding of PFLAG. Schulz is also the author of "Lost & Found: A Memoir"

Avril Swan, granddaughter of PFLAG founder Jeanne Manford. Swan is a physician and practices in San Francisco

Lilith Rose, former executive director and current program director, San Francisco PFLAG chapter

Susan Thronson, board president, PFLAG National

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In 2018, six children — Ciera, Abigail, Jeremiah, Devonte, Hannah and Markis — were murdered by their adoptive parents, Jennifer and Sarah Hart, who also committed suicide when they drove their family off of a cliff in Mendocino. The Harts were white; their adopted children were Black and mixed race. Much of the news coverage focused on the Harts, their motivations and history. But a new book by journalist Roxanna Asgarian traces the murdered children’s stories through the perspectives of their birth families. We’ll hear those stories along with the failures of the foster and adoptive systems they expose from Asgarian, whose book is titled “We Were Once a Family: A Story of Love, Death, and Child Removal in America.”

Guests:

Roxanna Asgarian, law and courts reporter, The Texas Tribune; author, “We Were Once a Family: A Story of Love, Death, and Child Removal in America”

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Ramen shops have popped up all over the Bay Area dishing out bowls of the classic Japanese comfort food. But members of the Japanese diaspora have long been disappointed by the offerings here. The broth is a little thin. The noodles can be a bit meh. Many wonder why their favorite dish to cure a hangover isn’t as good as what they can get standing at the bar of a ramen shop located on the platform of a Tokyo train station. The desire for a better bowl of ramen has propelled a handful of Bay Area residents to try their hand at improving on the dish by making a better noodle or changing up the recipe for the broth. In our latest edition of All You Can Eat, our series on Bay Area food cultures with KQED food editor Luke Tsai, we’ll talk about innovations in ramen and where you can find the best slurp around. What’s your favorite ramen restaurant?

Guests:

Clint Tan, founder and owner, Noodle in a Haystack

Luke Tsai , food editor, KQED Arts & Culture

Shotaro Uchida, founder and owner, Iseya Craft Noodle

Kayoko Akabori, founder and owner, Umami Mart

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